A 13-YEAR-old boy was being held in custody yesterday after he shot and wounded four schoolmates as they waited for classes to begin in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.
The wounded were taken to hospitals in Tulsa and Muskogee, but their injuries are described as not life-threatening.
This is at least the ninth case of a school shooting in the past two years. The shootings, including the one at Columbine, Colorado which left 12 students and a teacher dead, have led to widespread calls for stricter gun control and better school security.
A sheriff's deputy, Terry Cragg, who spoke to the boy in the isolation cell in the Muskogee county jail, said: "He doesn't even know who it was he shot. There was not a hate thing. I asked him why. He said `I don't know.' "
Mr Cragg said the boy was still trying to pull the trigger on the empty 9mm semi-automatic handgun when police officers arrived. But it is also reported that a science teacher grabbed the gun from the boy and pressed him against a wall.
School Superintendent Mr Steve Wilmoth said the students at the middle school were gathered outside before the 8 a.m. start of classes when the shooting began.
A 13-year-old student, Justine Hurst, told Associated Press she arrived at the school just after the shooting happened as the students were being rushed inside the school cafeteria. Backpacks were strewn everywhere and "everyone was screaming, everyone was crying".
She said she knew two of the victims and the shooter. "He seemed like a really nice person. He had a lot of friends," she said.
Another student, Greg Pruitt, was walking on the other side of the building from where the shooting took place and heard what he thought were fire-crackers. A vice-principal shouted at the students to get inside the cafeteria.
A spokeswoman at Tulsa Regional Medical Centre said a 12-year-old boy was in fair condition there with gunshot wounds to both arms. A 12-year-old girl, shot in the cheek, was in fair condition at another hospital. Two other victims were brought to Muskogee Regional Medical Centre with wounds to an arm and a leg.